Dryland permaculture on 1/2 acre in the Murray Mallee region

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I’m in awe of crowdfunding. For those that don’t know what it is, it’s where many people come together and pledge small amounts of money to fund a much larger goal. The campaign might be to start a small business, a community group or garden, buy a piece of equipment, for someone’s medical operation they can’t afford, maybe even to help somebody pay their bills.

RipeNear.Me is an meeting place where you can swap, give away, sell, and buy surplus produce. Perhaps you have more lemons than you can poke a stick at – put them up on RipeNear.Me and someone in your area looking for lemons might be in touch. I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking:

Even the free-range eggs we buy aren’t produced as ethically as we may like. ‘Free-range’ is more of a term to be legalistically manipulated than worked to in good faith. Well, Madelaine takes the whole idea to a new level. Her chickens freely graze on grass and bugs by day, are fed a nutritious diet of organic grains and natural supplements, and each egg is lovingly gathered, cleaned and sorted by the lady herself. A long, backbreaking task that Madelaine would like to get around by buying an appropriate piece of machinery. Over to her video to tell you more:

So, share the surplus and send a few dollars to each campaign if you can. This is how things are starting to happen nowadays. Collective, community-driven funding.

Seems this blog has gotten a bit of attention in the past week. If you are new here and would like to engage with me–criticism, praise, feedback; are all welcome–please do so via the comments or follow me on Twitter, @paulygoo.

The “defend what’s mine” mentality states that the moment “shit goes down,” every other human in the world instantly becomes either a resource to be used or a threat to be eliminated. Whomever you designate as “your tribe” are the only people with any value – all others are simply mindless sheep to be picked off with your shiny new AR-15.

I wonder what will become of these sustainability-discarding types when they finally emerge from their bunker, their stockpile of beans and powdered milk depleted.